In general, an electronic device may manage memory using a virtual memory scheme. The virtual memory scheme means a method using a memory address and actual memory address used by an electronic device by separating them. For example, the virtual memory scheme is implemented by a paging scheme for dividing the entire memory into pages of a specific size and associating a virtual address and a physical address in a page unit.
A memory management unit (MMU) is located inside or outside a processor, and converts a virtual address into a physical address whenever the processor accesses memory. The MMU manages the virtual address and the physical address in a special region of the memory in the form of a page table by mapping the virtual address and the physical address in a page unit. The MMU accesses the memory in order to identify a mapping relation for an address conversion relation. In this case, in order to reduce generated latency, memory of a cache structure called a translation lookaside buffer (TLB) is separately used in the MMU. If the associative relation between the virtual page and the physical page is identified in a TLB, that is, when a TLB Hit is generated, the MMU may converts the addresses without accessing the page table, and this has a great influence on performance.
Recently, the MMU's access to the memory increases as the amount of data to be processed in an electronic device, such as an increase of resolution of an image used, increases. Accordingly, the size of a TLB within the MMU necessary for an address conversion process has also increased.
If many processors or master IPs within the electronic device include a TLB having a large size, however, a large space is necessary and consumption power also increases.
In order to solve such a problem, the mapping number of virtual addresses and physical addresses may be reduced by increasing a page unit. However, the page unit cannot be increased for use of a current operating system and memory of other applications.
Accordingly, the necessity of reviewing a technology capable of having an effect in that the size of a TLB is maintained and a page unit is used like a large page unit has emerged.